If the Kansas City Chiefs wanted to make some bad decisions before the NFL Draft, they’ll decide to give the New York Giants something for Kadarius Toney.
There’s this great (fake) commercial segment from several seasons ago on Saturday Night Live back in the Phil Hartman and Dana Carvey days that featured a (fake) denim company called Bad Idea Jeans. A lot of the male cast members sit around before playing a pickup basketball game sporting their stonewashed jeans while providing life updates and the entire list is nothing but a series of bad ideas.
If Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach is sitting around in those same jeans this weekend, he might figure out a way to trade for New York Giants wide receiver Kadarius Toney.
On Friday, word leaked that after failing to show up for voluntary workouts (for the second time in two seasons), the Giants were putting Toney on the trade block. It’s not a surprise given the drama of his first season and the fact that the current regime in charge didn’t make the choice to select him in the first place.
On paper, the decision sounds like another Giants’ failure. In terms of drafting Toney in the first place, it absolutely is. However, the decision to trade him away is the right move for a team that can’t afford a toxic element on the roster in Brian Daboll’s first year. There’s a real chance to build a contender in New York in the next few years with solid leaders seemingly in place, and one of the first orders of business will be laying a proper foundation. And that means getting rid of players like Toney.
For other teams, the chance to grab an undeniably talented player with elite agility who was just drafted in the first round at No. 20 overall only a year ago will be something to jump at. When you can grab dynamic talent on the cheap, it’s a move worth making almost every time. And, again on paper, such a move can look good, especially for a team like the Chiefs.
But let’s just call this what it is: a bad idea.
There are solid reasons why the Chiefs look good as a potential home on the surface. The team’s offensive dynamism is down a notch or ten from last season with the offseason trade of Tyreek Hill to the Dolphins. From there, the Chiefs also have plenty of picks (a league-leading 12) in the upcoming draft to deal, and Veach already has a reputation for grabbing troubled players like Toney when their value is lowest (think Deandre Baker, Mike Hughes, Cam Erving, Reggie Ragland, and even Damon Arnette). The Chiefs are even likely to take a wide receiver early in this year’s draft.
Toney, however, is not the one to want. In college, he got into trouble for having an AR-15 in his backseat and then was suspended for “not living up to the Gator standard” while at Florida a month later. Shoulder injuries also kept him out of games in 2017 and 2019. Then last season for the Giants, he suffered injuries to his hamstring, quad, ankle, and shoulder in the same year he sent divisive tweets that stirred drama and is now away from the team for a personal matter.
When there are character concerns, toxic personality traits, injury woes, and a selfish approach to the game, the amount of talent involved doesn’t matter at all. While the Cleveland Browns’ pursuit of Deshaun Watson says otherwise, the Chiefs should know better than to chase after someone like this when they can simply round out the receiving corps with a pick next week.
Toney might be a talented player available for a lower price but it would require a team to have lower standards. The Chiefs should be better than that.